[JakeFromMSFT]

Hi,

On March 18th, 2009, Microsoft launched the Windows Web Application Gallery – www.microsoft.com/web/gallery. We are very excited about the response we’ve received so far. Enthusiastic users can now get community applications up and running on Windows with a few straightforward steps. Application developers are seeing an entirely new class of users working with their projects and expanding the reach and capabilities of their communities.

We would like to invite your community to participate in this venture. Dragonfly CMS looks like it would be a great addition to the Gallery. Our security engineers certainly appreciate your focus on securing the app – something they don’t see enough of.

We are here to offer you support for preparing your application for the Gallery. This is a straightforward process where we work with you to create a pair of XML files to include with your distribution which give the Web Platform Installer the information needed to install your application on the IIS Web Server. Also, if there are any issues with running your application on Windows and IIS, we will work with you to figure out a resolution.

There is further documentation on the Gallery available at learn.iis.net/page.asp...-gallery/. If the Gallery sounds interesting and you want to get started, please feel free to contact me directly at stjacobs at microsoft.com. I will follow up in a couple of days and we all look forward to seeing you in our Gallery!

-Jake

--
Steve Jacobson (JAKE)
Sr. Program Manager (IIS)
mailto:stjacobs@microsoft.com
425.538.4138
MSN / Live – JakeFromMSFT @ live.com
Google / Twitter / Skype – JakeFromMSFT

{Excerpt from learn.iis.net/page.asp...n-gallery/ }

The Windows Web Application Gallery makes it easy to explore, discover and install popular community ASP.Net and PHP applications on Windows. Users can browse and view applications for different types of Web sites, ranging from photo galleries to blogs to ecommerce sites.

The Web Application Gallery integrates with the Web Platform Installer 2.0, so that when a user clicks “Install” for an application, the Web Platform Installer 2.0 launches with context set on the user’s selection. This powerful combination of application discovery and simplified installation makes it easier than ever for community-based applications to run on Windows.

The Web Application Gallery also provides a way for developers to reach millions of Windows users. When an application is accepted by the Web Application Gallery, the application is added to the Web Application Gallery ATOM feed. The ATOM feed is consumed by the Web Application Gallery itself, Web Platform Installer 2.0, IIS7 Manager, and participating Hosting Control Panels.

[radiogetswild]

HMM sounds like fun but what does Mazy , Nano & Phoenix think to it ...?

please let us know the Pro's and Cons

In the mean time i will give mazy a qiuck tel call to let him know about this....................

cheers All

Tim

[Eestlane]

Mhmm, when it launched I thought it's only for .NET applications. It's nice to see it tries to gather as much of CMS and other apps as possible.

Can be useful place for promoting the CMS aswell.

[JakeFromMSFT]

Quote:

when it launched I thought it's only for .NET applications.

A lot of our focus is on PHP apps. We don't have to do much for the .NET apps. Personally, I barely speak .NET. I'm much more comfortable with PHP.

Quote:

please let us know the Pro's and Cons

Sure - Here's the abridged version:

Pros

• Greater reach for your app - It will show up on the Gallery Web Site, and inside people's Web Platform Installer when they look at the Applications tab
• Simpler installation on Windows - No need to go to the explorer or the command prompt, or even to log in to the database to complete the installation. PHP Setup is taken care of.
• Running better on Windows - We're finding that apps in the PI are getting a lot more feedback from Windows users, which has led to app improvements for running on IIS / Windows
• Corporate credibility - a number of people who are using the WebPI to install PHP apps are thrilled because they were never allowed by their IT departments to install PHP apps internally before.

Cons

• Extra work for the project. Not a lot, but you need to do the following:
  
  • Add 2 XML files to your distribution which describe the installation
  • Optionally add one or more SQL scripts to the distribution to aid in pre-install database setup
  • Optionally add a web.config file to provide similar functionality to a .htaccess file
  • Maintain the above files and send us a note with every new release which gives us a new MD5 Hash and download location
  
  

[DJ Maze]

For ease of use we need to add a web.config file which is supported as of IIS 7.

Who has IIS 7 and can test it (i'm a tux)

[radiogetswild]

Hi Mazy is there anyways our servers can help out with a test

let me know cheers

Tim

[DJ Maze]

Sorry tim but if i'm correct you have Server 2003 and it is shipped with Windows Server 2008 and probably in the Windows Vista Business edition.

[radiogetswild]

ok no probs you know best

but offer as you know always there for you and welcomed

have a great week

Tim

[JakeFromMSFT]

I've got access to a couple of Win2K8 systems and IIS 7

Would you like me to take a look at the web.config and run some tests here?

thanks!

-Jake

[JakeFromMSFT]

Hey all,
I wanted to check in and see if there's still interest in the Web Application Gallery.

We have some integration samples we've made to show how to set things up for a couple of other apps - learn.iis.net/page.asp...-samples/.

If there's interest, I can create some samples for DragonflyCMS and post them there as well. I'll probably do it anyway at some point, but if there's interest, I'll do it sooner

Thanks!

-Jake